Sorry for the long wait, here is Chapter 27. This chapter was a little hard to write but I finally got over that hurdle. Hopefully the story is going to go smoothly because we are around 60% there!

Taemin wakes up lethargic, wanting to sleep in. It's too comfortable to get up but the sunlight shining directly on his face makes him complain. His eyes open and sees an unfamiliar room.

“Oh good, you're awake. I was about to come wake you for breakfast.”

Taemin rubs his eyes, Taecyeon's personal assistant Junsu is standing by the door, watching him with a smile. “Your brother decided to let you sleep in since you don't have any classes today.”

Taemin sits up, his body still feels heavy from sleep. Looks like he's stayed at Taecyeon's place. “Where's Taecyeon?”

“Work,” Junsu goes into the room and pulls apart the blinds, letting the full sunlight into the room. Taemin groans, using his hand to block the sun. “You lucked out on a lecture. But Taecyeon says if you do this again there won't be a second chance.”

Taemin sleepily nods, with half-lidded eyes watching Junsu busy himself in the room. “Your clothes are on the chair there. After you finish washing up, come to the kitchen for breakfast.”

Taemin is going through the motion, making his way to the kitchen. The hangover soup in front of him has him confused.

“Taecyeon said you drank at the club so I had it prepared,” Junsu explains without asking. “Whether you're still sober or not, the soup is nutritional to get your energy back.”

Taemin says thanks and digs in. It's a bit savory too early in the morning for his taste but he doesn't voice his complaints. As he ate, his awareness and energy comes back to him gradually. Junsu is sitting in front of him to keep him company and making sure he takes every bite.

“Did you go to my house to get my clothes?” Taemin asks timidly.

“Yes and I'm surprised,” Junsu replies, amused. “I thought your place would be much neater. Don't worry, I didn't tell your brother.”

“I was looking for something and didn't have time to clean up,” Taemin ducks his head to hide his embarrassment. “I was going to clean up later.”

The excuse sounds pathetic to his ears, if not for Junsu's fond exasperated head shake. Taemin quickly finishes his food before he leaves. Junsu offers him a ride but Taemin declines, saying he needs the exercise and his destination isn't far.

Alone, Taemin takes out his cell phone. Luckily it still has battery from last night, allowing him to check his messages. He goes to the latest one, finding Taeyong had messaged him about being back home safely.

But there's no messages from Key since last night.

Taemin frown and sends a quick message to Key asking if he made it back home safely. Usually Key would check in on him to make sure one or the other would make it back home safe at night. Taemin gives it some time but after a good while, Key doesn't text back. And Key is the king of texting, usually responding back to Taemin quickly.

This has Taemin worry. Maybe Key lost his phone. Maybe Key's phone ran out of battery. But there's no activity on Key's SNS, not even his daily update.

Taemin puts his phone away, trying to figure out Key's schedule when something caught his eye.

It's Key.

Seeing Key standing across the street has Taemin sigh with relief. He calls at Key, waving at him intending to go over. He quickly crosses overs and -

Key is no where in sight.

Taemin's eyes widened, worried until he sees Key turning around the corner. Just how did he get there so fast?! He had kept his eyes on Key until people walking by blocks his view, there's no way for him to get way over there so quickly.

As Taemin follows Key he starts to worry. Key has been silent and the clothes he's wearing are from the club last night. His face is devoid of expression, only tilting his head to get Taemin to follow after him whenever there was a hint of hesitation. Everything about him is extremely uncharacteristic and raises a red flag in Taemin's guts.

He feels like he's following Key forever until they reach a junkyard devoid of humans. Key finally stops walking, facing away from Taemin.

Taemin clutches his side, catching for breath. “What the hell, Key?! Why didn't you answer me when I was calling for you?!”

Key doesn't turn around or answer him, forcing Taemin to approach him. “What's going on Key? Answer me!”

But the moment he put his hand on Key's shoulder, he was forced back.

“Shut up!”

Taemin is shock and taken aback. He feels himself being pulled up by the collar of his shirt and flinches when Key glares at him. Key's expression is wild, eyes crazed with a hint of crimson undertone.

“Am I supposed to answer at your beck and call?” The twist of his tightened collar has Taemin yelped in pain. “I'm not your mother or your brother. I'm not your servant you stupid child. Am I supposed to pamper you, little darling? How naïve and selfish you are.”

The harsh words and Key's angry eyes has Taemin shake in his grip. “What are you talking about, Key?!”

“Isn't it obvious?” Key scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Why do I need to spell it out for you?”

He throws Taemin far, it has him rolling on the ground. There is definitely something wrong with Key. His eyes held anger but almost blind like he doesn't know what he's seeing. He knows Key is strong but not this strong. Key wouldn't have talk like that, wouldn't hurt him like this.

“Key snap out of it!” Taemin yells, struggling to get up. “You're not yourself, wake up!”

Key grabs him by the back of his shirt to raise him up, his powerful strength allows him to hold Taemin in one hand like holding a little kitten. Key tilts his head snarling. “I'm wide awake. What about you?”

He throws Taemin much farther and harder as Taemin's back hits a car. He gasps in pain at the contact, falling to his knees. “Key stop it!”

“Stop it!” Key mocks as he approaches. “Are you going cry for your little demon boyfriend?”

Key crouches down at Taemin eye level. “Or better yet why don't you run away? All you do is cause trouble for other people, letting other people handle your problems for you. That's all you can do. Run away, Taemin!”

The words hurt more than the pain on his body that he actually wants to cry. He doesn't know why Key is acting this way but he doesn't run away.

“Boring.”

A third person's voice could be heard above them. Taemin recognizes it's that guy from the club. Tao is sitting on top of the junkyard wreckage with his legs moving back and forth, watching the spectacle

“It's boring if the person doesn't fight back,” Tao says, throws something at Key. “Catch.”

Key caught it without looking at him and brings it up for Taemin to see.

A boxcutter.

Taemin shakes when Key unsheathes the sharp metal. “Key, please...”

“That should make a little more excitement,” Tao has a hand under his chin, watching them with interest. “Cut his face up. I want to see if he's still handsome after it's all bloody.”

Key raises the boxcutter up ready to stab. Taemin clenches his eyes at the inevitable.

“Why do you hesitate? Are you waiting for me to interfere?”

Key is suddenly disarmed by an unknown force and thrown away from Taemin, his back hitting a broken car. Tao was shocked by the sight, distracted when the wreckage pile he was sitting tips over. He yelped when he fell but it looks like his fall and the wreckage slows down, landing on the ground gently.

Taemin raises his head and opens his eyes. It's Minho who saved him. He doesn't need to know what expression Minho is making but knows instinctively what he's feeling.

“Don't hurt him,” Taemin struggles to get up. “Don't hurt Key!”

Minho doesn't look back to help Taemin up. “Are you in a position to ask this of me?” Minho idly plays with the boxcutter he took from Key, crushing it in his hand. “All this begging, do you think Key will listen to you?”

“So he was right,” Tao growls, getting up and moving towards Key while keeping Minho in his sight. “The demon arrives when his master is in trouble.”

“Oh?” Minho raises his eyebrow. “You heard of me?”

Tao doesn't answer. He puts his hand on Key's shoulder, who instantly got up like a puppet on strings. Key doesn't show a hint of pain but now his anger, dazed eyes is focused on Minho.

Key immediately launches at Minho with an animalistic roar, attacking him. Minho could have easily batted them away but he was surprised by the power and speed behind his attacks. Key is relentless, keeping Minho focused on him so he couldn't go after Tao.

“Interesting you can keep up with me,” Minho frown, guarding against Key. Taemin had pleaded for Minho not to hurt him. “Is that man controlling you?”

Key doesn't answer, growling as he attacks Minho. A particular punch has Minho stumble back, gingerly touching his lip where he got hit. He deems to stop wasting time and go past Key to attack Tao. But Key anticipated his move, appearing in front of Minho's path with speed rivaling to his own. A harsh kick from Key shoots Minho into a pile of junk.

“You sure know how to pick 'em,” Tao says, startling Taemin when he sees him next to him. “But I expected more from a demon.”

Taemin couldn't get away fast enough when Tao tugs him to his side. The action has Minho snap his head and moves toward them with purpose. He suddenly stops in his tracks, glaring murder at Tao.

“Looks like the demon got brains,” Tao offhandedly points out, smoothing out Taemin's hair with foreign familiarity that has Minho outright snarling. “Any closer and it's game over for the both of you. It's not part of his plan but this is as far as my deal with him goes.”

Taemin wants nothing more than to get away from Tao but his body wouldn't budge. Not from fear or revulsion, his body literally can't move. Not even able to lift a finger.

“I can control time within the space I'm in,” Tao explains, wrapping his arms around Taemin's shoulder like one would a lover. “I have complete control over anything in my domain whether to stop, slow, or speed them up. I'm not limited to only physical but mental as well. I can even make them go backwards or forwards in time.”

Tao's arms wrapped around Taemin's shoulder moves down, his hand rests in the middle of Taemin's chest. The murderous glint in his eyes would have cause Minho to charge in without regard to the dangers around them had not the fear in Taemin's eyes been evident.

“I can even make their heart completely stop beating in a second,” Tao whispers in Taemin's ear.

Black fire now flares through Minho's eyes, angry at Tao for threatening him. In his anger he didn't notice Key had sneaked up behind him, quickly putting Minho in a chokehold. He couldn't rip away Key's hold, his strength match against a demon. His fingers itching to summon the black hell fire to get out of this situation, even if it means burning Key.

Minho closes his eyes. I'm sorry, Taemin.

“So this is all a demon is capable of? Looks like it's finally my turn to shine.”

Something bright appears in front of them, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. This causes both Key and Tao to loosen their hold to block the light. When they finally regain their vision, Taemin and Minho are on the other side of the junkyard with the person who saved them.

Taemin rubs his eyes, shocked. “J-jonghyun?!”

Jonghyun gives a side smile. “Hey, little angel.” He turns to Minho whose glaring at him. “Aren't you going to thank me?”

Minho turns away. “I had it handled.”

Jonghyun noncommittal hums, turning his head to Key and Tao. “What happened to Key?”

“I don't know,” Taemin replies anxiously. “He's still wearing the clothes he wore at the club last night. I thought he went home.”

“What of the other guy?”

“He was also at the club last night. He and his friends were going to... do something to us...”

The admission has Minho's black fire flare in his eyes, the air whipping around them wildly matching his mood. Unlike Minho, Jonghyun maintains a calm composure with only a frown on his face.

“I didn't expect another one.” Tao puts his hands in his pockets and turns to Key. “Don't let them come after me.”

Key rushes at them hard and fast with unfocused eyes filled with rage. Minho and Jonghyun stops Key simultaneously, causing a loud shockwave that throws Key into a wreckage pile. The force was strong causing the pile to cave in on him.

“Key!” Taemin yells, running towards where he landed. He shifts the pile to free Key when a hand shot up aiming for his face. Taemin's eyes widened in horror but was saved by Minho who pulls him away in a nick of time. Key frees himself from the wreckage to attack again. Before Minho can react, chains made of light came out from the ground, binding Key from attacking. Minho and Taemin looks back to see it had been Jonghyun who saved them again.

“It looks like Key is possessed,” Jonghyun says, putting his hand down and approaches them. “But I don't sense an evil spirit in him, only the essence. It's buried deep inside him, close to his heart. I won't be able to free him with my usual method otherwise it'll be fatal.”

Key cackles heartlessly, twisting in his chains. His eyes manic and the harsh undertone laces in his words. “Stupid angel! You're more useless than Taemin. Such a disappointment - spineless useless hypocrite!”

Taemin clenches his hand, feeling helpless. “There has to be a way to save him!”

Jonghyun shakes his head, closes his eyes. “The root of evil is embedded deep in Key's heart, heavenly essence would hurt not only the evil essence but also the host.”

Taemin unclenches his hand, feeling lost at the lack of options. The evil in Key twists him to become something vile. But he can't abandon Key like this and he doesn't want to go down that route.

“Then what about demonic essence?” Taemin suggests. “If heaven powers would only hurt Key, couldn't demonic essence suppress and overwhelm it? Can't it be used to extract?”

“That will only make it worse,” Jonghyun bows his head, resigned. “Evil vs evil? That's impossible. It can only corrupt and destroy, it's impossible to save and restore.”

“Actually... that's a possible option.”

Taemin and Jonghyun snaps their head at Minho who has been thinking the whole time. He is literally grasping straws, throwing out random ideas. But who would've thought the idea would be taken into consideration.

“I can use my powers to override the evil essence of their control with my own,” Minho finally says after some thought. “But I've never done this before and I don't know what could happen.”

“Then you're more useless than that angel!” Key cackles, his head thrown back laughing. He's been cursing and laughing at them ever since he's been chained. His hair thrown and unkempt, giving him a mad look. “Think you're better than everyone but really you're all bark and no bite! And you couldn't even take Taemin's soul this whole time?! Can you even consider yourself a demon?!”

Minho would have been angry at Key's words, his powers would have flared reacting to them. But he only has eyes on Taemin because that's all it matters to him.

“I trust you,” Taemin agrees, his gaze firm and resolute meeting Minho's. “Let's do this.”

“Are you serious?!” Jonghyun splutters. “What if you hurt Key?”

“I don't see you coming up with any other solutions,” Minho sneers, rolling up his sleeves to get ready. “If there's nothing else, why don't you go look for that other guy. It looks like he's long gone.”

Tao had disappeared the second Key attacks them, using the chaos as a distraction. Jonghyun narrows his eyes and summons a sword with a beam of light in his hand. He swiftly levels the sword close to Minho's throat causing Taemin to yelp and jump back.

“If you destroy his soul beyond repair, I'll send you through heavenly tribulation that no one would be able to recover your ashes,” Jonghyun threatens, his hand tightens the grip on his hilt.

Minho doesn't move, looks back with a disinterested look. “If I can't save him, what hope can you have?”

Jonghyun narrows his eyes as they both face each other off, gauging their abilities and threat. The air thick and hard to breath, angel and demon so close to attacking each other.

But Jonghyun lowers his sword and steps back, he walks away leaving them.

Taemin had been tense from Jonghyun and Minho's intensive face off finally sighs with relief. “I thought you guys were gonna kill each other.”

“Maybe later,” Minho shrugs. “But now is not the time.”

Taemin bites his lips, turning to Key whose still bounded by Jonghyun's chains and cursing at them. Minho goes behind Key, holding his head straight. “Taemin, you still trust me, right?”

Taemin nods, his eyes holding onto Minho.

“Well I don't trust you!” Key spats, trying to twist his head out of Minho's grip. “I don't trust any of you!”

Seeing there's no hesitation in Taemin eyes, Minho gives a small smile, reassured. “Good. Because this might get ugly and whatever happens you can't back out.”

With one final nod from Taemin is all Minho needs to begin.

As soon as Jonghyun exits from Key's room, Taemin quickly approaches him. “Is Key okay?”

“He's fine,” Jonghyun replies. “Nothing serious. He will need to take it easy a couple of days.”

“Will he remember?”

“Not really. If he does it will be just a nightmare to him.”

“Good.”

Jonghyun sighs. “I don't know how that demon did it but he did a passable job.”

Taemin gives a tired smiles at the offhanded compliment. “I'll tell him you said that.”

Jonghyun rolls his eyes. “Don't bother. He's going to be unbearable if you told him.”

Taemin giggles at the comment. When Taemin looks back at the door to Key's room, the smile slides off his face. Saving Key hadn't been easy who fought against Minho's influence the whole way. The process to save Key even forced Taemin to get involved. It took almost half a day to bring Key back to them but they don't know for sure until Key wakes up.

Sensing Taemin's concern Jonghyun puts his hand on his shoulder and gives a reassuring squeeze. “Key will recover. He's a strong human. I'll let you know if anything changes.”

With reassurance Taemin gives a shaky smile. “I'll stop by in the morning.”

Taemin leaves Key's apartment tired and weak. He barely knows how he got home until he drops down on his bed.

“I did most of the work but it looks like you're about to fall over,” Minho materializes and sits next to Taemin on the bed. “To Key it'll be like nothing happened. Aren't you going to thank me?”

Taemin doesn't want to say anything, taking the blanket and covers himself from view. He wills himself to shrink into nothingness but that will never happen.

Sensing a downed mood, Minho regards him carefully. “Did you get hurt anywhere?”

Taemin shakes his head.

“Key said a lot of awful things about me,” Taemin murmurs. “How I was naïve and selfish, everyone coddles me. I didn't know that was how Key felt about me the whole time. Key gets hurt and he feels like that because of me!”

Just thinking about it has tears falling from Taemin's eyes. Although he knows that Key was under the influence, there was a part of Key that really felt that way about Taemin. The essence of evil embedded in his heart brings out all the dark and negative emotions, making Key easy to control.

“Tell me; did Key hurt you?” Minho asks. “He had no qualms to hurt everyone except you. Compared to when I actually fought him, you had it easy. He threw you around yes but there wasn't any strength behind his attacks because he was trying to scare you off. You wouldn't leave him alone so the only thing he could do was insult you. Say every mean thing deep in his heart so that you would leave him.”

Hearing Taemin's sniffles under the covers Minho reach out intending to soothe Taemin's worries. His hand hesitates, hovering just above Taemin's covered form. In the end he withdraws, his hands to his side clutching the bedsheets in his grip.

“Some small part of Key feels that way but a large part of him loves you with all his heart,” Minho says, looking away from Taemin. “You can't let this ruin everything you have with Key. I've seen the way he treats you and he never wants to hurt you.”

Taemin recalls back. Key wasn't in his right mind, had been controlled to hurt and destroy, doesn't care about who gets in the way. His super strength given to him allows him to easily toss people aside and break things. But Key had restrained himself from striking Taemin. The whole time Taemin hadn't even realize what Key had been trying to do. To protect Taemin from getting hurt.

Key had looked at him with angry filled eyes, eyes clouded and filled with pain. An unnoticed tear escapes from him. “Run away, Taemin!”

They were just lucky to get out of there safe and sound. He had begged Minho to not hurt Key. Begged him to do whatever it takes to bring Key back to him.

“Thank you, Minho-hyung”